‘US won’t stop spying on others while everybody else doing it’

The revelations of Snowden have shown that mass spying is possible, and many people have found that their states do exactly the same things, only on a smaller scale, security researcher Karsten Nohl told RT.

RT:Snowden's revelations exposed America's
national security agency to the world. But were they really
ground breaking, or just stated what everybody knew?

Karsten Nohl: I think we should stop being
surprised that NSA has access to data we put in the internet.
It’s clear that if they can read our emails, that can also look
at the pictures attached to them. And it’s clear if the
technology exists that can analyze pictures and Google, Facebook
and other companies do it very intensely, then of course the NSA
that has a $10 billion annual budget also has access to this
technology.

So everything that anybody can analyze on the internet, private
or state, the NSA has access to and will analyze it. And these
revelations will just keep adding up to the full picture of the
NSA analyzing the entirety of everybody’s life as much as it is
available on the internet.

RT:Various information technologies are
developing all the time, increasing their security abilities. How
do the spy agencies get information then?

KN: As people change communication patterns, the
spy agencies have to change their analysis methods. So a lot more
information these states communicated through pictures, video,
audio, and of course agencies will chase this information. Other
companies do it too. For instance, Facebook is analyzing our
pictures very intensely to understand out wishes, our fears
physically, our marketability potential, what advertisement we
have to show to people to get them to buy stuff. And then the NSA
uses the same type of arguments to ask different questions of
course: “Who is the enemy of the US?”, “Who is conducting the
terrorist attacks?” or could potentially be. But the methods
are very much the same. There should be no secret that such
technology exists. Of course the NSA is using it.

RT:What changes can bring this NSA scandal
if we look at the spy agencies and various internet companies and
services?

KN: I think the way the NSA operates has already
changed slightly and that does much more questioning by the
people are allowed to question the NSA, being the US Senate or
the voters in the US. But also it will bring about changes in the
way the NSA operates by everybody else just protecting the data
better. Many services have in recent months switched on
encryption, which they could have done years ago. Google has
started encrypting its data and connections, the Yahoo and
Microsoft have started encrypting the front end, which Google had
been doing for a long time. Services like WhatsApp switched on
the encryption.

It’s becoming harder and harder to collect information on the
internet, but still there is so much to go around that I don’t
think the job of the NSA is very hard yet. But if it is
trajectory towards more encryption, more privacy technology
continues, hopefully, we’ll starve the intelligence organizations
of much of the information they have access today.

RT:Has the US itself changed, or will it go
on with the spying as if nothing happened?

KN: It is questionable whether those people who
do have a power to change the way the NSA operates, mostly the US
government of course, have an incentive to do so. I don’t think
the current discussion has shown that the US is the only
perpetrator in the world to give up its internet spying
potential. The revelations of Snowden have shown what is
possible, and many countries have found that their states do
exactly the same things, maybe on a smaller scale.

I don’t think the US is quite in the position when they want to
stop spying on others while everybody else does the same. It’s
the same like with military. Most people would agree if there are
no armies in the world any more we’ll be in a better place. But
even if one country has an army the surrounding countries, and
ultimately everybody, will have one. The same goes for the spying
agencies in the internet.

RT:Edward Snowden is not the first
whistleblower to reveal America's secrets to the world. But could
he be the one that damaged US interests the most? And whether
Snowden’s revelations could be considered as treason?

KN: The whole concept of the whistleblower in my
understanding is that we accept small crimes being committed for
larger crimes to be uncovered, and this concept goes with
whistleblowing of course. We allow our police to buy drugs to
find drug dealers, our spy agencies to hack our computers to find
terrorists. So the question really isn’t whether Snowden
committed a crime, but whether he uncovered larger crimes and
that of course is the case, not just in the US, but in many
countries. When crimes are committed we wouldn’t know about it if
it were not for Snowden.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.